Thursday, February 7, 2013

PB is awesome. I remember reading blogs of other moms who said, every month, "this is my favorite age!" and I'm seeing how that feels. Every new thing is fun.

Size: He's still holding steady in the 90th-95th percentile for everything. At his 15 month appointment, the pediatrician noted that he's as tall as a two-year old.

What he's eating: The short answer is: basically, all real food. 3 meals and two snacks a day, with cow's milk or water to drink.

The longer/mammary answer is: He nurses once a day now, in the mornings. This was entirely his choice: some time around when he turned 15 months old, he suddenly acted offended when I offered him a nursing session at bedtime. It was kind of weird, but I mentioned it to my mom and she said something similar happened with her - all three of her kids moved down to one nursing session around the 15-month mark, and then weaned around 16-17 months. (Interestingly, I'm the only one who chose a morning nurse - my siblings both opted for bedtime. PB's like me!) So we changed up his bedtime routine. Now, once he's in his pajamas, we read a few storybooks and sing a song, rather than nurse. I just took on a volunteer gig that keeps me out past PB's bedtime one evening a week, and it's kind of nice to not worry about whether there's breastmilk in the fridge and when I have to pump. (It's also nice to volunteer again, after a long time - but that's another story).

One nursing session a day is nice. I feel like we can still connect a little before I leave for work, when PB is at his just-woke-up snuggliest. I'm simultaneously feeling a little sad about weaning - he could decide any day that he doesn't want the milk any more - but also looking forward to it. I haven't had a weekend morning when I could just sleep in since he was born. But the tradeoff will be that we're not nursing any more, so I'm happy to wait a few more weeks, or months, for that. My mental cutoff point is age two, but I'll be very surprised if he's still nursing in October. Again, I've got mixed emotions about that thought: my baby is growing up, but I'm proud of us for sticking through the tough first months and going this long.

Physical skills: PB can now climb up on the couch and our living room chair on his own, and he climbs off backwards, which is great. I think he's starting to try to figure out how to climb out of his crib, but between the height and slippery finish of the crib, and the fact that he sleeps in a sleep sack, I think we're safe. For at least 5 more minutes.

Teeth: Holding steady at whatever the number is. 14? Not sure. He still hasn't cut his canines so he has these cute gaps in his teeth. We're working on teaching him to use a toothbrush, with moderate success.

Favorite toys: DH and I had been pondering getting a teddy bear for a little while, and this week DH found one. PB is in love with his "beeeeeeear!" He also loves playing with his small green playground bouncy ball, the variety of cool wooden Plan Toys he got for Christmas, and the electronic keyboard DH sometimes sets up for him - he bangs away at the keys. We also got something packaged in a cardboard poster tube, and that was the most fantastic multi-purpose toy ever for a few days.

Social skills:One of the greatest recent developments is that PB understands simple questions and commands. "Where is the ball?" sends him off on the search, and he returns with his ball. "Let's go upstairs for lunch" should only be said if you already standing at the base of the stairs, because he'll try to tear the gate down if you aren't fast enough. Last weekend, using simple commands, I made up a simplified version of basketball with a laundry basket: I would dribble the ball across the room and pass it to PB, and he'd toss it in the basket and we'd all cheer. He's happy to join in on new games with made up rules for as long as his brief attention span allows... but often he toddles away for a moment and then comes back for round two.

WORDS! This is why I really wanted to write this all down. PB's definitely talking, and I think we're almost on the cusp of a word explosion. Words he has right now: dada, mama (though he called me "baba" for a while when I had a bad cold over the holidays), cheese (a distinctive sound, rather than a word, but we know exactly what he means), oink, quack, bow wow (sounds are used to indicate the animal making them), ball, bear ("beeeeeeeeer!"), water (sort of, it's the sign for water combined with "wa wa wa wa"), bowl, bye-bye, bottle (bockle-bockle-bockle-bockle), truck (a growling motor sound). "Lalala" means it's time to read a Sandra Boynton book (Moo,Baa, Lalala is a favorite). This morning he said "nana" while signing for a banana, so I think that's on the horizon, and DH said that yesterday they were eating some canned fruit and PB was working on an f sound, trying to say "fruit". The adorable lip-buzzing that he did as a smaller baby is back - I think he's working out how to form sounds of different words.

He's also signing all the time: eat/food/hungry, milk, water, potty (no real action, but he likes to sit on it and read books), banana (he made up his own sign - looks just like an NFL ref declaring a touchdown), itsy bitsy spider - he learned this at the library at story time last week, and DH and I now both sing it roughly four thousand times a day. Also, he points to his head to indicate I should sing "head, shoulders knees and toes". He picks up a book and pats his chest to command "read to me". He'll stand in place and bop his bottom up and down if he wants to dance to some music, which is sort of a sign. If you say "itchy itchy!" he will pretend to scratch his tummy, a la the itchy iguanas in the Sandra Boynton ABC book. He sometimes signs "thank you", also.

Sleep: A few things happened at once with PB over the past month or so: he dropped the morning nap, he dropped the bedtime nursing session, and his night sleep patterns shifted. He's started waking up REALLY early some mornings - sometimes before 5:30am. Most of the time he's content to just chat with the stuffed monkey that stays in the crib with him until I come in at 6:30-6:45ish to nurse him and start the day. One morning this week, I heard him chatting around 5:45, but I went back to sleep. When my alarm went off at 6:45, PB had fallen back asleep! So I let him snooze until 7:15 - I made some coffee and got some of my work stuff packed up in the interim.

We shuffled his bed time a little later, to 7:30/7:45ish, but that hasn't seemed to help the early wakeups. It's not a huge deal, especially since he's so content. His afternoon nap is getting fairly consistent: usually 1pm - 3:30pm. One nap per day opens up the mornings so DH and PB can do fun stuff like library story time and other adventures, which is nice for everyone.

Overall, PB is a lot of fun at this age. It's so fun to watch him learn!

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Living in Chicago with Domestic Hercules, my husband, as we figure out life after grad school. Writing about my adventures, fun news tidbits, and other items I may have considered posting to social networking sites.